Sustainable Development Goals

As a top research university in the country, Western University is “committed to nurturing a culture of research excellence and innovation”. Western has research strengths across faculties and aims to create global scale research excellence across disciplines. Western’s strengths also lie in its ability to turn high-quality research into pragmatic approaches towards achieving international development goals. The global research that is conducted provides tangible benefits both locally and globally.

One such example of Western's leadership in research with broad reaching effects is exemplified through the work of members of the Africa Institute. The 2030 agenda for sustainable development represents a list of integrated and indivisible goals across three areas of development – the economic, social and environmental. The goals relate to people, planet, prosperity, and partnerships and are transformative in nature, aiming to make profound improvements across the planet. The goals recognize the need to collaborate with the most vulnerable countries in the world to eradicate poverty and hunger, and improve and health and education. Similar to the work of the Africa Institute, the Sustainable Goals reflect the need for an integrated approach and recognize the interconnectedness and cross-cutting elements that exist across different elements of research and development.